as a free thinking jw, i often spoke to DF people. i did not do it in front of elders. But watch out, some DF people are so brain dead, they will REPORT u for talking to them. not kidding-
Many jw do not feel good about DF, esp when it involves smoking, young persons. They tend to really hate adulters, and if they could would have them wear a Scarlet A.
I think if they took a vote about whether to DF or not-probaly a lot of jw would vote against. probably not enough to change policy.